Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention

Cancer at the end of the last decade

This may be a bit late for a look at cancer issues over the last decade but Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention will do so nonetheless. Here we focus on three famous lives that were struck down by cancer in late 2009.

Farrah Fawcett lost her struggle with cancer

Farrah Fawcett, 62, who became famous on television’s Charlie’s Angels, was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

She died in a Los Angles hospital.

A spokesman said that Fawcett “passed to a better place and left the pain and confines of her bed behind”.

Fawcett’s fight against the cancer was the theme of an emotional documentary that was released shortly before her death.

Senator Edward Kennedy died of cancer

A life of public service.

Ted Kennedy was called the “liberal lion of the Senate” and he fought a year-long battle with cancer of the brain. “He left the scene of the accident and has gone to a better place.” said a friend and admirer.

Edward Kennedy’s 1969 Chappaquiddick Speech – Memories of Greatness

Remembering Patrick Swayze

The cowboy celebrity that cared.

Patrick Swayze who became famous with the movie “Dirty Dancing” and then with the movie “Ghost,” died at the age of 57 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released shortly after his death.

Pancreatic cancer is a particularly deadly form of cancer.

The Beauty of Seiji Ozawa

One time Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Seiji Ozawa has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The cancer has been caught at an early stage and so Ozawa, 74, will stop conducting for six months to get treatment.

“I will abide by the doctors’ advice,” Ozawa said at a press conference. “I will be back within six months.”

Ozawa led the BSO for 29 years — longer than any other conductor in the orchestra’s history – before leaving in 2002. Unlike current music director James Levine, whose time is largely taken up in rehearsals and music-related events, Ozawa was a figure often spotted at Red Sox games and other public events. Back in April of 2002, people lined up outside Symphony Hall to get into a free concert Ozawa conducted as a kind of farewell to the city.

”He is as much a pillar of the Boston community as any of the sports stars or Teddy Kennedy,” David Rossman, a law professor at Boston University, told me. ”I think even people who don’t like music find it fulfilling to be here and share in something like this.”

Ozawa serves now as chief conductor of the Vienna State Opera.

Esophageal Cancer Survivor-ABC News

(video)

Racial and ethnic differences in cancer survival are greatest for cancers that can be more easily detected and treated. including breast and prostate cancer, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University. These differences are small with cancers that are harder to detect and treat such as pancreatic and lung cancer.

The findings, published in the October 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, highlight the need to develop specific health policies and interventions to address social disparities.

Although prior studies have focused on factors that contribute to disparities in specific cancers, the Mailman School researchers’ goal in this study was to understand why racial/ethnic disparities emerge in some cancers but not others. The study used data from more than 580,000 cancer cases in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries to compare racial/ethnic differences in survival across a spectrum of cancers, classified according to their five-year relative survival rates as a measure of how amenable each cancer is to medical interventions. The authors hypothesized that racial/ethnic disparities increase as medical interventions improve overall survival because individuals with more socioeconomic resources are in a better position to exploit medical advances to protect their health.

The results found that, as compared with whites, substantial survival disparities existed in more treatable cancers in African-Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and several subgroups of the Asian/Pacific Islander population.